The Prussian of the Opera
by Red Nightmare14
Summary: A young singer, Elizabeta Hedervary, makes a triumphant debut at the Opera - then disappears. Could the mysterious 'Prussian' be to blame? Elizabeta's friend, Roderich Edelstein, tries to find out... Second in my Classic Hetalia Series.
1. A New Singer

Elizabeta Hedervary had just given a wonderful performance at the Paris Opera House; at last minute she had replaced Lilli Vogel, who was sick, as Margarita in the opera _Fraust_. Nobody had ever heard a voice like hers. The audience went mad with delight and clapped until Eliza was dragged off the stage waving at everybody.

In his box overlooking the stage, Basch Zwingli sighed at the woman who had replaced his adoptive sister. Basch was a young man of twenty-four and not a man you would want to anger, as head of one of the most powerful families in Switzerland and his way with guns. His best friend, Roderich Edelstein, sat next to him, his face pale with surprise.

"I wonder if Elizabeta will remember me?" Roderich questioned his friend. "We used to play on the beach together as children."

Basch raised his eyebrow at the Austrian man. "Don't you mean she played on the beach while you cowered behind her?"

Roderich blushed and quickly decided to go back-stage to meet Elizabeta.

As he made his way to Elizabeta's dressing room, Roderich passed some of the ballet dancers in the narrow corridors. They were talking about a phantom 'Prussian' who had been haunting the Opera House for some time: how he seemed to appear from nowhere in the shape of a knight, or, sometimes, a gentleman in a blue evening suit - and how me vanished as soon as he was seen.

Carlos Machado, a Cuban scene-shifter with a grudge against Americans, had met him once on the staircase leading to the cellars. "His skin was as pale as paper, as was his hair, and his eyes were so red they looked like blood." He had told everybody afterwards.

Now Roderich entered Elizabeta's dressing room just as she had finished changing. "Who are you?" she asked, holding up a frying pan.

Roderich kissed her hand. "Don't you remember?" he asked. "I'm the little boy who tried to go into the sea to get your scarf when it blew away. I should like to speak to you in private, Miss Elizabeta."

"No," she replied. "Go away! I want to be alone!"

Roderich waited impatiently outside her door. To his surprise, he heard a man's voice coming from the dressing room. "Lizzy, you must love the awesome me!" he said.

Elizabeta's strong voice replied, "Why should I? I sang for you tonight, isn't that enough?" the voices sounded like a lover's argument.

Roderich heard no more as he backed away from the door, waiting for the man to leave. He knew that he loved Elizabeta and hated the man in her dressing room.

At last, Elizabeta came out, but she didn't see Roderich. When she had gone, he went into the dressing room. The light had been turned out. He stood there in complete darkness. "Where are you?" Roderich called out, turning on a flashlight he always carried with him (he was afraid of the dark). "If you don't answer, you're a coward!"

The flashlight lit up the room - but it was empty.

Roderich waited for ten minutes, then he got bored and left. As he went through the door, an icy blast struck him in the face. He walked through the corridors for some time, not knowing where he was going. Suddenly, near the bottom of a staircase, he had to make way for a group of men carrying a stretcher. The person on it was covered with a white sheet.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"Carlos Machado," one of the men answered. "He was found dead behind the scenery in the third cellar."


	2. The 'Angel' of Music

**AphHetaliaLover: Thank you for thinking that my story is good.**

**One girl Revolution2: Do you mean another story, or another chapter? If it's the latter, here it it!**

* * *

Elizabeta Hedervary didn't continue her triumph at the Opera House. After that evening, she refused to sing again. She seemed afraid of her new success. Roderich wrote to her many times, asking to meet her. At last, she sent him a short note:

_Mr Edelstein, I haven't forgotten you, the scared buy who nearly froze trying to get my scarf. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of my uncle, Mr Hedervary. He's buried near Lake Balaton and I'm going to visit his grave. Eli__zabeta Hedervary._

'Why has she written to me?' Roderich thought. 'Does she want me to follow her? May as well.' Roderich dressed quickly but as smartly as he could, he wanted to make an impression. On the long plane ride to Lake Balaton, a famous lake in Hungary, he thought about Elizabeta. The strong girl who could fight as well as any boy... Except him. He knew he was in love with her.

Elizabeta came from Hungary. Her mother had died when she was very young and, with no father on the scene, she was raised by her uncle, Bruno Hedervary, who could play the violin very well, almost as good as Roderich could play the piano. One day, while Mr Hedervary was playing at a fair - with Elizabeta singing - a Miss Braginskaya heard them. She persuaded her younger brother to pay for Elizabeta's music education in Austria, where Roderich met them in university. Like his own family, Mr Hedervary and Elizabeta spent every summer they could by Lake Balaton.

As a young boy, Rodefh loved listening to Mr Hedervary's stories, most of which were about sword fights and wrestling, but some were about famous composers like Mozart and Beethoven. Those were the ones Roderich loved best.

"Every great musician receives a visit from the Angel of Music at least once in his or her life. No one ever sees the Angel, but they remember the way he plays the flute or all their lives." He would always end the story by saying to Elizabeta, "When I'm in heaven, kid, I'll send him to you."

Three years later, Mr Hedervary had died.

At Lake Balaton, Roderich found Elizabeta at a hotel, reading a book. Roderich could care less about what the book was about. She seemed to expect his arrival, since she had saved him a seat by the old-fashioned fire. "So you came," she looked up from her book. "I knew you would."

"Yes," Roderich replied. "You realise I love you, Elizabeta. I can't live without you."

Elizabeta blushed and turned her head away. "Me?" she giggled. "You're dreaming." Them she burst out laughing. "If you believe that, then I was wrong to write to you." she said. "But seeing you at the Opera House reminded me of the lake."

"Don't laugh at me," Roderich groaned, blushing even more fiercely than Elizabeta. "Must you treat me like this?"

Elizabeta muffled her giggles in her book.

"I think I know the answer." Roderich said. "There was a man in your dressing room that evening, someone you had a fight with."

At these words, Elizabeta turned pale. She ran to her room with tears falling from her eyes. Roderich didn't know what to do. That afternoon, he visited Mr Hedervary's grave. As he stood there, Elizabeta came to join him.

"Listen, Roderich," she sighed. "Do you remember the legend of the Angel of Music?"

"Of course I do," Roderich replied. "Your uncle told it to me at the lake."

"The Angel of Music has visited me," Elizabeta said.

"No doubt about it," Roderich humoured Elizabeta. "No person can sing as well as you can. No professor could teach you. Yes, you have heard the Angel of Music."

"He comes to my dressing room, but he's a bit rude to be an angel. You heard him."

Roderich laughed. "The man who said 'awesome'?" Elizabeta nodded. "Someone's playing a trick on you, Elizabeta."

Elizabeta gave a cry, smacked Roderich on the head with her convenient frying pan and ran from him. Roderich didn't see her again until that evening - at half past eleven he saw her live her room and go downstairs. He followed her to Mr Hedervary's grave.

"How can't she hear me? I'm not that quiet." He thought as he almost fell against another car.

Elizabeta watched the church clock strick midnight. She looked up at the tree behind the grave. The sound of a flute filled the air. Elizabeta eventually began to head back to the hotel.

As Roderich tried to follow her again, he saw a shadow gliding into the church door. He caught hold of the edge of its cloak. Just then, the moon shone through the tree branches. The shadow turned around. Roderich saw a man with blood-red eyes and snow-white hair. He shuddered as its eyes looked straight at him.

He felt as if he was face to face with the devil!


	3. Box Five

There were new managers at the Opera House. Arthur Kirkland and Alfred Jones. They completely ignored the rumours of a Prussian...well Arthur convinced Alfred that it was stupid - until they received a letter from him.

Arthur got the letter before Alfred since Alfred was always late and nobody could understand Alfred's accent. _"Dear Managers,"_ he read, _"the awesome me arrived at the Opera to find my box - Box Five - sold to somebody else. The previous owners were always kind to me. If you wish to live in peace, give the awesome me back my box. _The Prussian."

"If this is somebody's idea of a joke, I'm not laughing." Arthur plainly stated.

"Well, as the hero, I say we sell tickets as usual to the public tonight for Box Five." Alfred shouted.

Arthur covered his ears. "I can hear you, you know!"

The following day, reports reached them of the rowdiness in Box Five during the performance, so noisy that the police had to be called. The managers sent for Honda Kiku, who looked after the box.

"What happened last night?" Arthur demanded.

"The Prussian is angry because you let his box." Kiku explained. "I didn't believe him either until he pushed me down the stairs."

"Have you ever seen the Prussian, dude?" Alfred asked.

"No, but I have heard his flute," Kiku replied. "He usually arrives in he middle of the first act. He plays a little piece and says "awesome" three times. He never hurts me."

The managers decided to investigate Box Five for themselves. It was silent in the huge and gloomy theatre. A few rays of eerie light shone onto the stage. In the gloom, they both saw a shape in the box. Neither of them spoke, but they stood for a while, staring until the figure had disappeared. When they went inside the box, there was nothing to be seen.

"Someone's making a fool of us!" Arthur screamed. "We're watching _Faust_ on Saturday in this box!" Alfred simply nodded, scared of the figure.

On Saturday morning, the managers received another letter. _"Managers: WAR! If you still want peace, you must give the awesome me back my box and Elizabeta Hedervary must sing the part of Margarita tonight (go Eliza!). If you refuse, the Opera House will be cursed. Listen to me the awesome me's warning. _The Prussian."

"I'm sick of him!" Arthur cried, banging his fists on the table.

As he spoke, the head groom of the Opera stables was shown in. The stables were in the cellars of the Opera. Here twelve horses were being trained for a procession in a coming opera.

The groom was very agitated. "Cesar, the white horse, has been stolen," he explained. "There's no doubt in my mind who has done it. It was the Prussian. I saw a black shadow riding a white horse that looked exactly like Cesar."

"Did you run after them?" Arthur asked.

"I did! And I shouted!" the groom replied, "but they were too fast for me."

Arthur stood up. "You can go." He smiled grimly. "We'll lodge a complaint against the Prussian." When the groom had left, Arthur turned to Alfred. "We'll sack him at once," he said. "He'll tell his story of the Prussian and everyone will laugh at us." Alfred agreed. "Kiku as well."

Lilli played Margarita in _Faust_ as usual that evening. As she was reading her letters, she found one of them clumsily written in red ink. _"If you sing tonight, a misfortune worse than death will curse you."_

Lilli cried to her adoptive brother for a while, but eventually decided to sing anyway. A second letter arrived that evening. It simply said: _"You're mad."_

Lilli ignored the threats. She sang the part of Margarita while Elizabeta took a smaller part. The first act of _Faust_ passed without incident because Margarita didn't appear in the first act. In the second act, Lilli came onto the stage. The audience greeted her with great enthusiasm and clapped more and more. Faust came onto the stage to join her. As he knelt on one knee to sing to her, Lilli opened her mouth to sing with him - and croaked like a toad.

Arthur and Alfred gasped in horror. They trembled as they felt the Prussian all around them. Lilli croaked again. "Sing!" Arthur screamed at her. Lilli croaked again.

The Prussian chuckled to himself in Box Five. Then the managers heard his voice in theirs: "Her singing's bringing the chandelier down!"

At that moment, screamed filled the Opera House as the chandelier slipped down towards the crow. It smashed into the middle of the stalls amid a thousand shouts of terror.

Many people were wounded that night – and one man was killed – the man who had taken Honda Kiku's job.

That tragic evening was bad for everybody. Although the verdict was accidental death caused by wear and tear of the chains that held the chandelier, the managers lost their confidence and they gave Kiku back his job.

But something else happened that evening. Elizabeta Hedervary disappeared. And two weeks later, she was still missing.


	4. The Voice

Roderich was so worried about Eliza that he came to the Opera House to ask the managers if they knew where she was.

"She asked for long leave of absence, dude, for her health," Alfred explained.

"You need a leave for health." Arthur muttered, under his breath.

"She's ill!" Roderich cried.

Arthur patted Roderich's shoulder. "We don't know. She didn't see a doctor."

Roderich's thoughts were gloomy as he left the Opera for the house where Eliza lodged with Miss Braginsky. He knew that Eliza had a vivid imagination and that she constantly broody over her dead uncle. Music affected her greatly.

"She can easily fall victim to someone," he thought, although he knew she could easily take care of herself.

Miss Braginsky received him kindly. "Mr Edelstein!" she cried. "Lovely to meet you, now we can talk of Eliza."

"Where is she, Miss?" Roderich asked.

"She is with her Angel of Music," the woman replied. "She often talks of you, Roderich. She's found of you, but you should really know that she's not free to be with you."

"Why not?" he asked.

"The Angel of Music forbids her," Miss Braginsky replied. "He tells her that she will never hear his flute again if she marries. She can't live without her Angel. He played the flute at her uncle's grave."

"Miss," Roderich said. "How long as known this angel?"

"About three months," she told him. "He gives her lessons in her dressing room at the Opera. But I don't know where she has her lessons now."

Roderich left Miss Braginsky angrily. "It's clear she loves another man," he told himself. "Or hates him. Or both."

He went straight to Basch's house and cried for hours.

"I should tell you that Elizabeta was seen with another man," his friend told him.

Roderich was terribly upset. That evening, he went to the park to watch for Eliza. It was bitterly cold and the road was bright under the moonlight. Roderich waited. At last a car turned the corner of the road and came towards him. A woman leaned out in the pale moonlight.

"Eliza!" Roderich cried.

Suddenly, the window closed and her face disappeared. The car rushed away. Roderich ran behind it calling Eliza's name, but she didn't reply. He stopped and stood in the silence, staring down the cold road. He heart was cold, too. She hadn't answered his cry.

The next morning, Roderich received a muddy, unstamped envelope.

"To Mr Roderich Edelstein: Go to the masked ball at the Opera the night after tomorrow," he ready. "Wear a mask and white hooded cloak. ELIZA."

"She probably threw it out the car," Roderich thought, "so a passer-by would pick it up and deliver it."

"Who's keeping her prisoner?" he asked himself. "What monster has her? Why has he done it? It must be that man with the flute. Poor Eliza."

The night of the ball came at last. Roderich felt ridiculous in his white cloak and mask trimmed with thick lace, made by Lilli. But at least nobody would recognise him! Just before midnight, a figure in a black hooded cloak touched his hand briefly as he waited.

"Is that you, Eliza?" he asked.

The person raised its fingers to its lips to warn him not to say the name again, and walked on. Roderich followed. He passed a group of people crowded around a man dressed in blue, a mask covering almost all his face and hair.

"He's wearing the same mask as the man I saw at the Lake!" Roderich cried to Eliza. "This time he won't escape."

Eliza pulled Roderich quickly into a private box and slammed the door.

"Who? Who are you talking about?" she asked.

"Who?" he asked with a hint of annoyance. "That man with the hideous mask. Your friend, Eliza…the Angel of Music!"

But Eliza didn't let him leave. "I wanted to tell you my secret, but I can't now that you've lost faith in me. Goodbye, Roderich. You won't see me again." She walked away from him. "And don't follow me."

Roderich didn't go after her, but when the ball was over, he made his way to Eliza's dressing room. Hearing footsteps outside, he hid behind a curtain. Eliza came in. She flung her mask onto the table and he was shocked by the fear in her face. "Poor Gilbert," she whispered.

She sat down at her table and began to write a letter. Suddenly, she stopped and seemed to listen. The sound of a flute came faintly through the walls. It was beautiful. Eliza stood up.

"I'm here, Gilbert," she said. "You're late."

Roderich peeped from behind the curtain. There was nobody else in the room. Eliza's face lit up, a smile of happiness on her bloodless lips. The flute went on, playing a tune from _Romeo and Juliet_.

Eliza stretched out her arms and began to walk towards the mirror, which covered one wall of her dressing room. Roderich came out of hiding and walked towards her. He tried to hug her, but an icy blast his face, preventing him from doing so. He fell back, watching twenty images of Eliza spinning around him.

When everything was still again, she had disappeared from the room that still echoed with the sound of a flute.


	5. The Prussian

The next day, Roderich was surprised to find Eliza safely at home.

"There's a terrible mystery around you, Elizabeta," he said, "a mystery much more dangerous than a Prussian. Why won't you tell me where you've been for the last two weeks? You must allow me to protect you."

Eliza managed to snuffle a laugh. "You can barely protect yourself! What I've done is none of your business."

"Are you under some sort of spell, Elizabeta?" he replied. "A very dangerous spell. You know there's no such person as the Prussian. Tell me! Who does the flute belong to? Who's Gilbert?"

Eliza turned as white as a sheet. "Roderich," she said. "Forget the flute. Don't even remember his name. You mustn't try to solve the mystery. Promise me."

Roderich promised. Then he left her, cursing Gilbert as he went.

* * *

Roderich was so unhappy that he decided to leave town. "I'm going back to Austria in a month's time," he told Eliza. "Perhaps I'll get married and never see you again."

"Perhaps I'll get married, too," she replied.

To his surprise, the few weeks were the happiest in Roderich's life. Eliza took Lilli's place as Margarita and she was a great success once more. She also showed Roderich parts of the Opera House he'd never seen, although she was always careful not to go close to the trap doors in the stage. "Everything underground belongs to him." she simply stated.

But this happiness was spoilt by one thing – sometimes Eliza disappeared for a day or two and show always returned unhappy and pale, her eyes red-rimmed. The day before he was due to leave for Austria, Roderich couldn't stand it any longer.

"I won't leave until you tell me your secret," he said. "I want to remove you from Gilbert's power."

"Shut up!" Eliza whispered. "He might hear you. Follow me." She led him to the roof of the Opera House. The whole land was spread out below them in the fine spring sunshine. They didn't see the shape in the shadows behind them. "He's a devil, Roderich," she began. "He's allowed me to spend time with you because you're leaving. Now, with only one day left, if I don't go back, he'll fetch me with his flute. Then he'll tell me he loves me over and over again."

"Let's go away from here today, then," Roderich replied.

"No," Eliza said. "It would be too cruel! Let him hear me sing tomorrow evening. Then we can go to Austria together. I love you, Roderich." She sighed and a tear fell from her eye. "I feel that if I reutnr to him again, I won't come back."

"Tell me when you first saw him," Roderich said.

"The night when the chandelier fell," she replied. "The flute made me come to him. It was amazing, Roderich. My dressing room seemed to lengthen, and suddenly I was in a dark passage."

"You must've been dreaming," Roderich said. 'Or drunk,' he thought.

"No," Eliza replied. "A cold hand took my wrist. I was in the hands of a man wrapped in a large cloak and hood covering his face. I tried to scream, but he put his hand over my mouth. It smelt of blood and I fainted. When I opened my eyes, he was splashing my face with water. He lifted me onto a white horse."

"Where did the horse take you?" Roderich asked.

"To the cellars of the Opera," Eliza said. "We turned downwards in a bluish light until we came to a boat fastened at the side of an underground lake. The man put me in it and rowed quickly across the water. He said: 'Don't scream, Eliza, you're fine." I tried to pull away his hood. 'You aren't in any danger unless you see my face," he whispered. I cried. 'I'm not an Angel or a phantom. I'm Gilbert.' He said."

"Elizabeta, something tells me that it's wrong to wait until tomorrow," Roderich said. "We must leave now. Now that we know Gilbert isn't a phantom, we must speak to him." he paused. "Do you hate him?"

Eliza shook her head. "How can I hate him? He loves me! He imprisoned me underground for love. He played the flute for me. I listened…and stayed. I was a prisoner in his house. But I had to know the face behind the music." Eliza shuddered. "Roderich, I pulled off his mask!"

Eliza held Roderich's hand as she shivered violently. "If I live to be a hundred, I'll still hear his cry of grief and anger when I saw the white hair and blood eyes. He hissed at me and I hit him with my frying pan."

Roderich smiled slightly. "So like you. But where is he?"

"Roderich, listen to me!" Eliza continued. "He dragged me by my hair, he took my hands and dug them into his hair. 'Now you've seen my horrible face, I won't let you leave me.'" Eliza looked at Roderich. "I can't tell you anymore. I stayed with him for two weeks. I lied about my feelings for him and he became my slave. He even gained enough trust for me to me out. But the night you saw us in the park nearly caused my death. He was jealous. But he let me go because I promised to go back."

"You say that you love me, but you went back!" Roderich groaned.

"Yes, yes," she replied, "but not because I love him. It was because of his cries when I left that I came back. The bastard!" she sighed. "I hoped my visits would calm him, but they make him mad with love for me."

Eliza put her trembling arms around Roderich's neck, shocking the Austrian. "I'm frightened," she whispered, which shocked Roderich even more, "so frightened."

The sky thundered as a storm approached. And as they ran from the roof (or in Roderich's case, walk under Eliza's cloak), they saw two blazing red eyes staring at them.


	6. Where Is Elizabeta?

Roderich returned home worried by all that he had just seen and heard. "I shall save her from that terrible man," he said as he prepared to sleep that night. "I'll be the man this time." He turned off his bedside lamp. Two eyes, like blazing fire stared at him from the foot of his bed, Roderich was a coward and trembled. He turn the lamp back on and the eyes disappeared.

"The Prussian's eyes have disappeared, but he could still be here," he thought.

Roderich looked around his room and under his bed like a child. Then he turned the lamp off again. The eyes appeared outside his window. Roderich took a slipper and throw it a little above them.

The yowling of a cat brought Basch to his room. He saw that there was a hole in the window at a man's height. Roderich was leaning over the balcony. "Oops." He thought his friend had gone crazy, to throw out one of his expensive slippers

"Have you gone mad?" Basch cried. "Wake up! You've hit a cat and woken Lilli!"

"Sorry, but it thought it was Gilbert." Roderich replied.

"Who's Gilbert?" Basch asked.

"My rival," Roderich said, "and don't laugh, but I will take Elizabeta Hedervary away from him. Tonight."

At nine o'clock that evening, a car took its place outside the Opera House. Inside, the performance of _Faust_ had begun. Elizabeta didn't sing well at first. Then Lilli entered her box. She wished her friend good luck with the words, 'If I can't be the star, then I'm glad it's you." The words saved her. Elizabeta wanted to triumph once more and she sang with all her heart and soul. In the last act, when she pleaded with the angels, she made all the members of the audience feel as if they, too, had wings.

Roderich stood up to face her and she stretched out her arms to him, singing: _"__My spirit longs to be with you."_

Suddenly, the stage was plunged into darkness. When the lights turned back on, Elizabeta Hedervary had disappeared. Roderich rushed onto the stage. Mad with despair, he called Elizabeta's name and thought he heard her screams from the Prussian's pit of darkness.

"Elizabeta!" he shouted. "Are you alive?"

He ran to her dressing room. He wept before the mirror that had once let Elizabeta pass to the darkness below, but the glass would not let him in. When the police arrived, they asked to speak with Roderich in the managers' office. As he was entering the room, somebody whispered in his ear: _"__Gilbert's secrets must remain secret."_

Roderich turned around. A man stood next to him, blonde hair with blue eyes, his fingers on his lips. "Is that monster your friend?" Roderich asked.

"Gilbert's secret is also Elizabeta Hedervary's secret," the man replied. Then he bowed and walked away.

After speaking to the police, Roderich went to find the blue-eyed man again. "You seem to know a lot," he accused him, "but I don't have time to listen. I have to help Elizabeta." He stared at man, his face desperate. "What do you know, sir? Can you help me?"


	7. Into the Cellars

Chapter Seven: Into the Cellars

The man turned and began to make his way towards Elizabeta's dressing room. Roderich followed him. "I can try to take you to her…and to Gilbert," he said. "He may even be here now, in the wall, in the floor, in the ceiling. What did you tell the police?"

"That the Prussian of the Opera had abducted Elizabeta," Roderich replied. "He didn't believe me. He thought I was crazy."

"We might have to fight him," the man said. "You must be prepared for anything. Gilbert is dangerous, more terrible than you can imagine. You love Elizabeta, don't you?"

"I love her with all my heart," Roderich replied. "But why would you risk her life for her? Do you hate Gilbert?"

"No," he said. "I don't hate him. if I did, I would have stopped him long ago."

They entered the empty dressing room and the man walked over to the mirror. He pressed the wall around it. "It's not a magic mirror," he explained. "It's on a spring. But Gilbert may know that we're coming after him. He might have cut the cords that turn it."

Suddenly, their reflection in the glass rippled. The mirror lit up and moved like a revolving door. It turned, carrying them from the light into the deep darkness. In the dim light of his companion's flashlight, Roderich saw that they were in a narrow passage.

"We've only got one way of helping Elizabeta," the man said. "And that's to enter the house unseen. We can do that from the third cellar below this passage – at the exact spot where Carlos Machado died."

They came to a light in the floor where they climbed down through a trap door into the third cellar. But there were too many people about – scene-shifters and policemen – so they hid for a while in the cellars below. As they waited there, something moved in the darkness and a shining face without a body came towards them "I've never seen this before!" the man whispered to Roderich. "It's not Gilbert – he never comes down here – but it may be one of his tricks. Take care!"

They ran along the passage away from the head, but it followed them, with a sound like a thousand nails being scraped down a blackboard. The face was close now. Its red eyes were large and staring, it's hair blonde, his teeth pointed and sharp. They couldn't go on any further. Roderich and the man flattened themselves against the wall at the end of the passage. Soon the face was level with them! Their hair stood on end in horror. Then they realised what the noise was. Bats! They flew up the two men, biting and clawing them.

"Don't move! Don't move!" the face said. "You're quite safe. I'm a vampire. Just let me pass with my bats."

The vampire walked on, dragging with him waves of flying bats – and the two men breathed deeply again. "We can't be far from the underground lake down here," Roderich said. "Take me there now, please, sir."

"No, we can't enter his house from the lake," his companion replied. "It's too well guarded. I was almost killed there."

"If you can't help Elizabeta, at least let me try," Roderich said, hot with anger. "How can we enter his house without crossing the lake?"

"As I've already said, from the third cellar," the man replied. "It's safe to return there now. And on our back, I'll tell you how I know Gilbert…"


End file.
